. hello. i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington. wherever you are watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. >> this is cnn breaking news. >> up first, the last step in the 2016 presidential election. right now congress is convening

in joint session of the senate and the house of representatives to officially count the electoral college ballots and certify donald trump's victory. >> we will keep you updated this n this peaceful transfer of power. those boxes that you are seeing right now, those are the electoral votes. they're being brought in to the floor of the house of representatives. right now they're going through a brief ceremonial procedure, and then it will be official. the vice president there you see him in the middle of your screen, joe biden, he is presiding

>> reported today that will make donald trump the next president of the united states. >> it certainly will. the vice president also is the president of the senate with paul ryan speaking in the house. >> the process that gets together, and how it all works. the vice president will opal fa b -- alphabetically.

he will go one state at a time. representing the house and the senate. they will read the totals, and the vice president will ask if there are any objections. there will be objections raised, about ut there is a cavat. there needs to be a representative from the house and a representative from the senate agreeing to the objection. now, there are a handful of house members, democratic house members that are considering objections related to what they say is voter suppression. a number of different states that have voter id laws that obviously have been controversial over the last couple of years. they have not found anybody to co-sponsor those objections. wolf, if you do hear objections, don't expect them to amount to much. in terms of historically, how does this work? last time we had major objections. 2001. it was a similar type of situation. obviously after george w. bush's

election. the congressional black caucus tried to file several objections. never found a senate counterpart. those were all pushed away. that objection was pushed away by the full senate and house. not a lot of drama here. very formulaic process. don't expect any roadblocks. wolf. >> david gregory is with us as well. david, there will be a handful of democrats who will try to make a political statement. they know a lot of people are watching right now. it's not going to go anywhere, but still it's an opportunity to score political points. >> it is, and there are still efforts, i think among the resistance in the country of democrats trying to lodge a real protest against the presidency of donald trump. you know, we have to remember that when this issue of the electoral college came up, initially in the 2000 election, it was really something that op

nepts of the system let go by the wayside. they could have taken this up. when you had president bush winning the electoral vote and the popular vote in 2004 and then president obama doing the same, it seems to have lost its energy. >> you seeing the senators walking in, members of the house of representatives as well. what's interesting, paul ryan, the speaker, having a little private chat with joe biden. the vice president of the united states as i pointed out. the vice president is also the president of the u.s. senate. they will be gafelling this special session into order. david, the vice president he was sort of blunt yesterday in that interview with pbs with a message to donald trump. 2 sof raised eyebrows. he took a trump tactic and sort of gave back what trump usually gives out and just sort of looked to the camera and said that donald trump should grow up. that was the advice from the vice president when he was asked

about tweeting about chuck schumer calling him a clown. that was the charge from donald trump yesterday. >> we have come to see that tableau, whether it was nancy pelosi or john boehner, paul ryan sitting next to him. of course, that's going to change now, and it will be mike pence occupying that seat when we next expect to see a joint session of congress. >> there's paul ryan and joe biden. they will be in charge of this special session. phil mattingly, it's interesting. right now the president-elect in in the united states i'm sure he would be glued to a tv over at trump tower wanting to watch this, but he is getting a very sensitive highly classified briefing right now.

i assume he is still in that briefing not able to watch this historic moment where the members of the house and senate make it official. he will be the next president of the united states. >> they're meeting in joint session to verify the certificates and count the votes of the electors of the several states for president and vice president of the united states. after the certificates are -- the tellers will count and make a list of the votes cast by the electors in the southern states. tellers on the part of the two houses will take their places at the clerk's desk.

>> all right. there you have it. the vice president beginning the process, just going through something right now. can they count all those ballots and make it official. we'll watch the count as it unfolds and get back to the floor of the united states house of representatives. >> as declassified version could be released any moment now. for weeks trump has expressed deep skepticism whether evidence linking russia to the presidential election. donald trump spoke to the "new york times", a brief phone interview, and called the investigation into russian hacking, and i'm quoting him now.

a political witch hunt. the president-elect also said, again quoting, i don't want countries to be hacking our country. they've hacked the white house. they've hacked conclude. we're like the hacking capital of the world. let's get more on all of this. our panel still with us. david gregory is back with us. i'm also joined by our chief national security correspondent jim schudo and jeremy bash of beacon global strategies, a former chief of staff to leon panetta with the cia as well as the department of defense. david, they're not mincing any words. she told reporters afterwards it was stunning in its conclusions, but only a few hours before he is going to be briefed. donald trump grants a phone interview to the "new york times." when she says this is all just a political witch hunt. >> yeah. we have stepped into the surreal here, and into a highly

politicized moment of national intelligence because this all has to do with our election and the conclusions are being greeted differently by different sides. i do think that democrats are fuelling this a little bit by suggesting not only did this happen, not only is he not taking it seriously, but, in fact, the suggestion is it tipped the election in his favor. there's nothing that backs that up. i think what republicans and democrats are saying this is a serious attack on our democracy. foreign intelligence. this has to be taken by any president of any party. this is bigger than donald trump. why is this important? it gets that not just the material was stolen. we know that after it was stolen that it was strategically leaked to wikileaks during the days and weeks preseegsd the election.

that feeds the intelligence community's judgment that the attention here was not just to undermine the election, but to help one candidate. that's their judgment. the intelligence here, this report is clearly being politicized namely by the president-elect of the united states who still last night was calling it so-called election hacking. the fact is, though, it's donald trump really against the world there. it's not republican versus democrat on this issue because republicans across the board have accepted that russia did this hacking and it's a serious thing. in fact, they're talking about more serious sanctions. it is donald trump that is in a very tiny circle here contesting that assessment, and the question is does that change with this briefing today? >> we don't know. >> jeremy bash, he keeps suggesting this. supporters keep suggesting the whole purpose of this is simply that the democrats want to undermine the legitimacy of his winning the election. that's why the intelligence community is doing this. he is not going to play along with that.

>> the intelligence community, the cia, the nsa are nonpartisan professional agencies. these are people who are risking their lives, in some cases losing their lives in tricky situations. they're part of the defenses of our country. when he is worn in as the 45 td president in two fridays, wolf, he is going to rely on those intelligence professionals. he is going to rely on those troops. when they come to him and say, mr. president kim jong un is stacking a missile on a lawmaker pad in north korea aimed at us and then if we're hit, that is a major, major scandal in our country. >> this is not -- this is still going on. it's not just meddling in the election. it's the propaganda that's been

on our door. there are important elections in europe this year that russia will try to interfere with. this is about the presidency. this is about america. it's about our interest, and i just wonder how trump is going to react, his tenor, his tone after he gets this briefing. si saying something personally that's different from twitter? it. >> the president also said -- i'll read this line to you, jim. they have people -- talking about the democrats -- very heavily in the election. they are very embarrassed by it to some extent it's a witch hunt. they just focused on this. >> that gets to what donald trump's motivation appears to be here, right? that he has this indelible connection between the finding of the intelligence community and questions about the legitimacy of his victory, and it seems hard for him to set that aside, and don't take my

view for it, because i've asked republicans and democrats why they believe he is pushing back, and that really gets at it there. >> republican and democrat, russia did it, and it's a serious attack on our democracy. not my words. mccain's words, graham's, ryan's, mcconnell's, et cetera. >> breaking news developing in fort lauderdale, florida. we have some coming in right now. you see people who have screened out of the terminal, out of the planes on to the runways there outside. it looks like a lot of police activity in the fort lauderdale airport right now. i have no idea what is going on, but this is clearly a not normal

situation at the fort lauderdale international airport. it's the fort lauderdale, hollywood, says florida, airport. usuallily a very busy airport there in south florida and broward county. you see a lot of police vehicles outside, and you see people who have just streamed outside for whatever reason, but we're going to try to find out what's going on. david susi, a cnn aviation analyst is on the phone with us wrs . do you have any idea why this is happening at the hollywood international airport? >> no, i really don't. it just -- the details are just streaming in right now. as far as procedurally at the airport you can expect to be segregated into various levels of secure areas. when this occurred, it will be how much impact this will have. certainly the airport will be shut down from any kind of movement if the security area has been breached at all, which i'm pretty certain it has been based on the details we have so far. >> normally if there is a breach

inside the terminal, let's say especially inside the area after tsa, after security screening, what's the procedure there if they suspect someone got through and there could be a problem? >> literally everyone that's in the airport at that point has to be screened again. they would clear out the post-screening area, have all those people go back into the prescreening area and have to go back through security again at a heightened level. it would be an orange or red level at that point. at that point you could expect very, very long lines. very -- a lot of delays. everything is going to be delayed. first thing, though, they have to stabilize the situation, which is going to require that everyone be evacuated. that's why you see those people streaming out of the airport at this point. >> clearly evacuated. we're getting some tweets from ari fleisher rrk the former bush press secretary. look at this. he is writing on twitter, i'm at fort lauderdale airport. shots have been fired. everyone is running.

>> i assume there's good security. >> very good. i would be surprised if someone got a gun past the security end of the secure area, but that doesn't mean to say this has happened twice before where guns were fired and shots were fired inside the terminal area where you would buy your tickets or pick up your baggage. those are two incidences that have happened before, and standard protocol for that, again, is to assume that the security area was breached and to evacuate everyone that's out there on -- trying to get.

>> people have streamed out. you see some planes moving on the tarmac there. i guess they haven't -- they haven't just -- they haven't just closed the airport. >> police arpt letting anyone out of the airport. at least not the area where i am. he said shots were fired, but all seems calm right now. let's hope it is calm right now. it's a confusing situation at a major airport here in the united states, david susi, and you see vehicles, emergency vehicles, moving now on the tarmac. you can see that fire truck.

>> i'm wondering if shots might have been fired and that involves something in the operations area. >> shots fired through a non -- through a high secure area on the tarmac. that would very much increase how much has to be done by airport security at that point because now the airport -- the airplanes themselves on the tarmac might have been in danger of some kind of action. people are on board, and you detached from the jetway, and then the protocol would be that airplane needs to get out on to the runway or to the taxiway immediately to get away from the airport facility itself because it's been breached. that capsule, the airplane, is the secure area at that point.

that's why any airplanes in the area, even if they're coming into the tarmac, in to be unloaded, would probably most likely be out on the tax areas and the runways. >> we're now told -- david, thank you very much. we are being joined from the fort lauderdale airport. there's an ongoing situation right now baggage claim, media availability at the staging area. this sounds pretty disturbing if all of a sudden all of these people rushed ouchtd terminal to the tarmac. >> yeah. well, you're right. we've seen this situation before at some shootings at airports where evacuation routes occur on to the tarmac. this is actually sort of a nightmare scenario for laufrmt because as your previous speaker said, you have aircraft coming

in. obviously at this point the airport is shut down. you are going to have a massive law enforcement presence not only for those that were already there working at the airport, tsa, local police, federal police, but you are going to have a lot of people coming in now. i think the one silver lining here is that this -- if this occurred in the baggage area, that sort of exterior to the security lines at the airport, so i think what they're doing out of an abundance of caution is they're pushing everybody on to the tarmac. this airport will be shut down for quite some time at this particular point. if the shooting incident is over at baggage claim, as you point out, this is not in the secure area. it's not beyond the tsa security checkpoints. anyone can just walk into an airport and go to baggage claim here in the united states. obviously suggest that something happened in baggage claim, but people must have heard shots, and as a result think ran out to the tarmac. the right part of your screen,

you see a lot of people on the tarmac right there. >> right. i mean, we have seen this before where individuals pick soft targets. one of those being, you know, we've seen this internationally too. they pick the soft targets either right outside the entrance to the airport or right inside where there's no security. you're right, this is an area that is a soft target. it is a good location for a bad guy to go in and start shooting. of course, you have a lot of people milling around picking their bags up and, you know, obviously it creates a lot of targets for an individual going in there with a rifle or handgun. >> another one of our cnn law enforcement analysts. what's your read on this situation because the reporting is just coming in. ari fleisher, the former white house press secretary tweeting that shots were fired.

>> baggage claim. i think he said terminal two at the fort lauderdale, hollywood international airport. you see some of the planes still out there. i assume the airport is closed, cedric. what's your understanding? >> well, at this point i can only imagine they have probably shut down the airport, wolf, to a point where there's no one coming in or going out. this is very early in this incident, and certainly going to be very early in the investigation. you are going to have a number of federal agencies that are going to be responding to this location as we speak. i think very shortly within a reasonable amount of time we will gather intel communication as to what occurred, and this is going to be ongoing for some time. let me also note having served at dallas-fort worth airport as a fellow security director a few years ago, we were preparing ourselves for these potential

type of events that have taken place. we worked very closely with washington d.c., and all the other federal partners and local partners to try to, one, make sure everyone is safe, and, two, make attempts to keep people in a position where we can identify if there's any other potential threats that still may be in and around that airport. it's very early in this investigation. >> as you point out, you once worked at airport security. you see these pictures. you see these people still out there on the tarmac. you see a lot of security. you see the entrance to the airports, the roads coming into the airport. clearly shut down with a lot of police vehicles. it's kreerl a serious situation. when you see this, what's your understanding? >> well, when you see it, wolf, you know, here again, this is

very different for us in this country. particularly to see this type of shooting with this number of injuries. what is going to be profoundly important to determine at this point, of course, is who is the attacker or attackers? here begun, it's early in this investigation. what we got to do right now is to secure that scene, keep as many people as safe as possible, says and in addition to that, begin to conduct an investigation. here again, we're only within moments of the shooting, so i think as information continues to come in, we'll be able to make a much better assessment based on information we are going to get from police on the ground and also from reporters. >> we are now told, cedric, that one shooter was involved -- the shooter is now in custody. at least nine people were injured, we're told, in this incident. the shooter is in custody, and

there were only one individual. it looks like it may be over and these people will be going back inside the terminal. we don't know for sure. the only thing we know right now that one shooter apparently was involved in baggage claim. terminal two. fort lauderdale hollywood international airport. at least nine people were injured in that shooting rampage. what does that say to you, cedric? >> well, what it says to me here, wolf, early in in this investigation, they may have one shooter in custody. that does not negate the fact there could be other parties involved who brought him there, who was there to take him away, who else could be potentially involved in this investigation? what we're seeing the images that we're seeing are very preliminary, but i know for a fact that the investigators and police and federal authorities on that scene are going to secure that scene and they got to make determinations and clear that entire airport to make sure that it's safe, and we won't determine that until a little

bit further along in the afternoon as this continues to unfold. it's great we got a shooter in custody, but this still does not negate the fact, wolf, it could be still others involved. we don't know as of yet what determinations will be made as we continue -- as they continue with this investigation. >> we're getting this information from federal officials who are knowledgeable about the situation at the fort lauderdale hollywood international airport. when they say one shooter has now been arrested, nine people injured at baggage claim. inside the terminal and as a result of all of those shots, as a result of all of those shots that were fired, you saw a lot of people streaming out of the airport on to the tarmac and a lot of security there as well. tom fuentes, our senior law enforcement laos as well. tom, i don't know if you have gotten more information, but it may be over, but before they can say it is over, they've got to make sure that this was an

individual involved in the shootings and no others remain at large. >> that's true. >> make a determination that it's a person acting alone, then i think they'll probably reopen the airport to normal business, but not before that. >> it will take a while to reopen that airport because they want to be 100% sure there's no one else that remains at large. the notion that the shooting incident happens at baggage claim, which is right near curb side, not beyond the security perimeter, anyone can just walk

into an airport, go to baggage claim, but all these other people inside the terminal who were presumably beyond security, they ran outside. is that normal? >> i don't know. i think a lot of people hear shots fired, then they're going to try to run for an exit to get out of the building and not be trapped. depending on the layout of that airport that might be perfectly normal, but, you know, one of the key things they'll be doing now is immediately looking at all the security cameras, determine if this person arrived in the taxi or parked a car, came by himself, entered the airport, and began shooting. they should have pretty good video coverage of almost the entire airport, including the outlying parking lot, approach entrances that cars and taxis and buses would take, as well as within the airport itself. even though baggage claim does not require you to go through magnetometers, it would still have all the video cameras that the other parts of the airport

would have. >> our aviation correspondent renee marsh is reporting that a suspect is in custody after the shooting at the fort lauderdale hollywood airport. this according to u.s. federal officials. law enforcement believes there was just one shooter, ren yas, as quoting your sources, at least nine people were injured in the shooting clearly the tsa is investigating. who takes charge of the investigation. >> if it was determined to be terrorism, the fbi and joint terrorism task force would take charge. if it's believed to be a deranged person or, you know, someone with a personal motive to want to shoot someone, then it would be the local police, and that could be the airport or the city police taking charge of it. i think at this point they'll be trying to determine the motive is really the main concern that separates terrorism from just an act of violence. was it done for support of a

terrorist group or a political ideology, or, again, is this a lone actor who might have a mental problem? >> i think we have renee marsh on the phone right now as well. our aviation correspondent. renee, you're working your sources. what else are you learning? >> well, this is all very preliminary information. at this point we are hearing at least nine wounded and you are looking at the visual there. we know that the terminal two there at fort lauderdale international airport has been evacuated as they try to figure out exactly what is going on here. i was on the phone with the tsa a short time ago. they are aware of this incident, but they're working on gathering information. you can see this is all fresh. the one detail that we do know is that at this point there are people who are wounded in this shooting. we do know that there was a shooting. shots were fired.

the latest number we have right now is that at least nine wounded, but, wolf, as you know, with any live late-breaking developing stories, those numbers tend to change. this is the snap shot of the situation i presume once they are able to talk to this person, they'll also talk to witnesses. they'll have a better picture as to what sparked all of this, but that right now is unknown. >> were there any threats to u.s. airports, any warnings, any

advisories radio leased in recent weeks or months from the -- from u.s. authorities? >> you know, they operate a point in time, the time that we're in. they will always tell you as far as law enforcement tsa that they're always on alert, but there was nothing outstanding, meaning of particular incident. >> did it happen before the checkpoint? it happen beyond the checkpoint? all of this is still outstanding information. we don't know. back to your original question. do we have any warnings or alerts or special bulletins for u.s. airports prior to this

incident? no. you know, we don't know exactly what was happening here. they will tell you that at this specific airport, the law enforcement prior to the checkpoint, wolf, and then you know what, tsa is in charge of the checkpoint. there is security there. there is security on the grounds there. you see these pictures. you see all of these people who have been evacuated. this is a great disruption. i'm sure it will be residual effects for this investigation for a long time and figuring out exactly what went wrong. we want to talk about all of the people in the vicinity, wolf, and this could take some time before we get that whole picture e picture. >> we just got a statement in from the mayor of fort lauderdale, who said it this in a statement to cnn. broward county operates that airport, but fort lauderdale

police department and fire department are providing mutual aids and response. we have our units on site to provide assistance and support. it would be more appropriate for broward county to provide a formal comment or statement on the incident at this time. broward county is where ford lauderdale and hollywood are, where this airport is located in broward county. it's one of the biggest counties in the state of florida as a lot of our viewers know the southern part of the state. just north of miami. miami dade county. it's interesting, renee. fort lauderdale police and fire, they are providing mutual aid and response. i assume a lot of others are as well. >> absolutely. all hands on deck when you have a situation like this. broud county, as you know, that's the sheriff's office there that has jurisdiction over this particular airport, but when we have an incident like this, it is all hands on deck because they have to have all their resources. you see the amount of people alone that have to be safely

evacuated from the terminal, says and it looks like in one case perhaps the aircraft. also -- the manpower is needed for such an ongoing situation, and you also want to make sure you have all of your bases covered. that would explain why you need those additional resources, wolf. just to reset for people just tuning in, you have a busy airpo airport. not -- at least nine people were wounded. we know that the shooter is in custody and i'm being told, wolf, that it is only one suspect. right now it remains a mystery what caused this shooting.

>> she used to live down in miami. renee, thanks very much. tom fuentes is still with us, our senior law enforcement analyst. tom, we know the baggage claim at all the u.s. airports outside the security perimeter, but in recent years they have sort of beefed up security even at baggage claim. at least at some airports. you see law enforcement walking around at baggage claig claim. is that right? >> no, that's true. you do have police officers and security guards at that area and all over the grounds of an airport, but to get to baggage claim, you don't have to go through the magnetometers because passengers arrive and then family members or limo drivers may pull up and then come in to that area to help them load luggage into the vehicle. the arrival area of most airports is not as secure as going through the ticket areas -- the gate areas where you go through tsa run magnetometers. you recall just i think a couple

of years ago -- >> need to interrupt for a second. we see somebody on a stretcher being wheeled into an ambulance over there. a fire department vehicle. i don't know if that individual was hurt as part of the shooting or something happened. sometimes people just out of shock they need some medical attention, but go ahead. sorry for interrupting. >> okay. i was saying we had this shooting a couple of years ago, and i think it was dallas airport where it was outside of baggage, and it turned out that the person that did the shooting on the driveway just outside of baggage claim, it was a domestic disturbance, and, you know, it was personally motivated. we just don't know in this case what the motivation was. to cause this person to fire all the shots at the people down there. >> the immediate priority is to not only get information from the suspect who is now in custody. the shooter and also eyewitnesss

who saw what was going on. they're going to question as many people as possible, right? >> right. under the safety rules -- they don't have to get miranda rights. >> why is that? >> there are tactics or shooters or if it's a larger plot that will occur at other airports or other locations. during that time the initial phase right now where it's critical to learn that this person was alone, they don't have to give miranda rights. you go ahead and begin the questioning for a certain period of time, and it never has been determined in the court decisions exactly how long that time is. it's not a matter of days, but certainly in the next minutes and hours they have the right to try to learn what they can from the shooter, and then as far as the witnesses who were in the area, they're going to want to know if they heard him say anything. did he yell out any kind of a slogan or allegiance to an

organization or some other statement made at the time of the shooting or was it completely silent during the process of firing the weapon? >> we're seeing a lot of people that were on the tarmac now being escorted by law enforcement into the -- back into the terminal, which is an encouraging sign, cedric alexander, he is with us as well, our cnn law enforcement analyst. these people are being brought inside back into the terminal. that is encouraging. that is encouraging. cedr cedric, hold out for a moment because the broward county mayor is joining us as well. mayor, what can you tell us about what happened? >> so, basically at this point in time we have an active crime scene investigation in terminal two. it appears that it was involving a lone shooter. airport sheriff's office does have him in custody at this time. we are currently experiencing

some backup in terms of our passengers, on being able to move through the terminals as well as traffic around the area. at this time we are still investigating. we have activated our airport emergency operation center, and we are working to get as much information to the public as possible. >> mayor shariff, is it over as far as you know? you say it's an active investigation. clearly the investigation is only just beginning right now, but as far as you know, there's one shooter who is now in custody. was he the sole shooter and presumably everything is at least calm right now? >> yes. at this point in time that's correct. he was a lone shooter, and we have no evidence at this time that he was acting with anyone else. he is in custody, and we are currently investigating. >> he himself when he was taken into custody, he was not shoot himself or anything like that.

he is in good shape, is that right? >> i can't -- i can't report on that at this time because i'm not aware of that. >> do we know any -- is there any initial indication of why this shooter may have done this? >> at this time we do not have a motive, but we are actively investigating that with our sheriff's office and our public informations office is set up in the media staging area between terminal one and two, which all media are welcome to attend. >> were there any threats going into this incident as far as you know to the fort lauderdale hollywood international airport? >> not that we are aware of. >> so this came out of the blue. it was a surprise. is the airport totally shut down right now? no spliets coming in or out? >> at this time the airport is shut down, and they are in the process of trying to activate other areas in the airport so that they can start moving passengers along.

>> how long do you think that's going to take? do you have any idea? >> i would imagine at this point that's going to be several hours. >> so the airport for all practice purposes is going to be shut for a while, and there's huge -- i assume there's huge traffic problems, people trying to catch flights coming into the airport, but no one -- no vehicles are allowed to get anywhere near the airport, is that right? >> there are vehicles that have been rerouted, and they are in holding areas right now, but if you need further information or specifics on that, i'm going to have to direct you to our pio officer who was actually in the terminal right now and working on moving that traffic along, but people that were already in the airport, they are trying to move them as quickly as possible where they can be in an area where they're safe and they can get on to their next destination as quickly as possible, but because this is so new and this is just happening at this point in time, i would say that we will have some delays.

>> the mayor of broward county, barbara shariff, we will stay in close touch with you, mayor. thank you for that update. >> oh, you're very welcome. >> good will you can to all the folks in broward county in southern -- south florida. our aviation correspondent renee marsh is with us right now. renee, for our viewers here in the united states and around the world, update us on what we know at this point. a very disturbing incident, a shooting incident at fort lauderdale hollywood international airport. >> that's right, wolf. you can see lots of activity there. all of those folks that you see had to be evacuated as a result of this shooting at the fort lauderdale international airport. >> hard reporting right now as

far as deaths. what we can tell you is that there are at least nine injuries. >> we do know this happened in terminal two. delta -- this did happen by the baggage claim area. we do know what section of the airport. of course, anyone who flies, you know there is not as much of a security presence at the baggage claim area as there would be, let's say, at a tsa checkpoint. we don't know motive. that is the big question at this hour. why did this person open fire? is we don't have any details about who this shooter is. lots of outstanding questions, wolf, but you can see the impact that it has had on this very

busy airport. i mean, look at all of those passengers that are essentially not going anywhere. >> investigators are going to want to speak to them so they can piece all of this together and get a motive. as i said, that remains unknown. >> renee, very disturbing information coming in right now. >> we have not reported at least until now that there have been deaths. multiple people shot and killed in this incident. the shooter is in custody.

>> the delta terminal, terminal two at the fort lauderdale international airport where a lot of people are still out on the tarmac having rushed outside after they heard shots were fired. now we have confirmed through the broward county sheriff's office that multiple people are dead, that is dramatically raising the stakes. >> it absolutely does, wolf. it does. we do know from our team here, our justice team, that both the atf and the fbi are now responding to this particular incident to assist, to lend their resources to the investigation. we do have that tidbit as far as the law enforcement reinforcements that are now coming in to this investigation here in fort lauderdale international airport, wolf. again, both the -- both the fbi and the atf are now responding

to this incident. as you said, this airport is under the jurisdiction of the broward -- the broward sheriff's office. >> i want to go to the former state senator square reply ring who is joining us on the phone right now. senator, you spent a lot of time at that fort lauderdale hollywood international airport. broward county sheriff now saying multiple people are dead. dwoent know how many. we know a lot of people have been injured earlier reported at least nine people were injured. what can you tell us? what have you heard? snoo wolf, i know very little other than i know i was asked to come on because i know the airport quite well. i haven't heard any new informati

information. >> i can tell you that the broward sheriff's office has done a tremendous job. you see security there all the time. you never feel -- my gosh, you never ever imagine something like this. you don't feel unsafe. going through there. especially when you probably are there almost every week. >> i don't have any new information to tell at this point. >> is there usually -- you know the airport well. you know the baggage claim. the delta baggage claim at terminal two. is there usually police law enforcement on the scene at baggage claim even though it's outside the security, the tsa perimeter? >> you notice that the broward sheriff's office does a tremendous job, and you certainly know that they're patrolling it. you notice the patrolmen and women there quite often. yes, you do -- you do see patrol

people there all the time. >> jeremy ring, a former florida state senator who knows that airport well. flies out and in to the fort hollywood international airport. thanks, senator, for joining us. cedric alexander is still with us. he is our cnn law enforcement analyst.

making sure they have opportunities to interview witnesses in and around that event when it occurred, but will have to be and will be very methodical investigation. >> the fort lauderdale airport has tweeted all services have now been suspended. all services are temporarily suspended at fort lauderdale internal airport. they do that usually in an incident like this where the shooter is in custody out of an abundance of caution, right? >> absolutely.

here again, you may have a shooter in custody but still very early in this investigation, we don't know who else may or may not been involved in some type of way, so this is still early. that airport is probably going to shut down for some considerable amount of time, it's going to affect flights across the country, but quite frankly that is very minor in termless of what just occurred at that airport. so, yes, to your point, you're absolutely right, wolf. >> we are getting more information from the broward county sheriff, he tweeted moments ago that shots were fired. a caller on 12:55 about shots fired at 100 terminal drive at the ft. lauderdale-hollywood international airport. we also got a statement from the governor of florida. rick scott's office, we have additional reports of a shooting

at fort lauderdale international airport. at this time state law enforcement do not have confirmation of fatalities, currently he is traveling to fort lauderda fort lauderdale. the statement goes on to say the a.t.f. tweeted they are responding to the shooting to assist state and local partners and one of our producers at cnn spoke to the fbi spokesperson who gave him the following statement from the miami fbi spokesperson "we are aware of the situation and are in contact with local authorities. no further information is available at this time." presumably, cedric they're going to want to make a public statement though explain not only to florida and around the

world, what exactly happened. >> that would be correct. i think once the governor gets on the ground there and gets briefed by the appropriate law enforcement agencies i'm quite sure at some point they're going to make a statement publicly in terms of what they know and capable of sharing in this situation and there will be some things that they can share with the public and there are going to be some things of course that they're not going to be able to share because it's still early in the investigation, but you can be assured at one point once the governor and others have an opportunity to be briefed they will share that information with the rest of the country. >> all activities at the airport are suspended flights come in going out.

rin rene marsh is still with us. >> reporter: we are now learning that multiple people are dead. the side-bar to this is completely it is a stand still as far as operations. we know that the airport now has shut down operations. the faa has now released a statement saying there will be security. and the people here will have key information, who was involved, targeted, any sort of color will help investigators figure out a motive here to my understanding is still unknown. as we mentioned a few minutes ago, the a.t.f. is on the way, the fbi is in contact, the fort

lauderdale police is there, and broward county sheriff's office so you have a pool of law enforcement descending on this airport which is again at a stand still to try to figure out a motive here. you have just in the open there somebody opening fire within the baggage claim area. again that happened in terminal 2, wolf. we know delta airlines operates out of that terminal, but again at this point you would imagine that they have formed this perimeter around the airport as well to keep the flow of individuals in and out as they try to piece this whole thing together, wolf. >> cedric alexander we're told a little more than one hour ago that shots were fired at the baggage claim at the delta terminal 2, a very busy friday,

and the airport is now shut down. this is going to be a very complicated investigation. federal, state, local authorities all will be involved inclu including the faa. >> it is very early in the investigation, one hour into the scene wolf is a very short period of time. they're still going to -- it's a lot of information still to be gathered through whatever video recordings they have there, through witness statements just a host of things that are going on as we speak. so it's going to be some time before that airport i can only imagine becomes operational again, which here again is going to affect other flights across the country where they are connecting flights but the most important thing is keeping everyone safe and making real determination as to what happened, who is involved, who

is the person in custody. and we will learn more of this as time goes on but this is just one hour into this investigation, event but we will learn more. >> i imagine whether la guardia, lax will be beefing up security just along those lines. >> that's right. we don't know the reason this attack occurred at fort lauderdale. they stay alert and do that any way, but i'm sure are taking

measures all across this country where everyone has to remain very vigilant but continue to move around and travel and be a democratic society in which we are and do not allow though to shake us but to be aware to where we can move people through the transportation. that's america, we're courageous and continue to do the things we need to do as we look into and they look into what's going on in fort lauderdale and report to the rest of the country and world to what they know to determine the reason for this attack. >> we're following the breaking news a shooting at the ft. lauderdale-hollywood international airport. multiple injured, multiple dead. brooke baldwin follows the